Game Description: The sixth installment in Activision's hit music game franchise, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock brings a fresh look to the series with the all-new Quest Mode. Players will battle their way through a collection of challenges to level up and become a true Warrior of Rock!

Gamescom 2010: Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Hands-On

By
Jem Alexander
- Posted Aug 23, 2010

What We Know:

With Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock, Neversoft is returning to an over the top narrative story mode, reminiscent of Guitar Hero III. This quest mode sees characters transforming into the eponymous Warriors of Rock by (how else?) rocking out. In doing so they get closer to freeing the Demigod of Rock, who has been imprisoned by The Beast, and rescuing his magic guitar. At Gamescom we learned more details about the story mode and the characters' individual powers.

What We're Seeing Now

As a Guitar Hero skeptic and long-time Rock Band fan I was surprised to find that Warriors of Rock is pretty appealing. The game seems to be much closer in tone to Guitar Hero III than Guitar Hero: World Tour. The over the top cutscenes are back and, thanks to the Brutal Legend cover-of-a-metal-LP visual style,they look even more ridiculous than ever.

It feels like Neversoft has stopped trying to create a better Rock Band game than Harmonix (a battle they can never win, in my opinion) and is sticking to what it's good at. Namely, appealing to the sort of rhythm gamers who can get 98% on "Through The Fire And The Flames" in Guitar Hero III. The ultra metal rock fans who want that extra level of challenge that comes with Neversoft's insane expert difficulty setting.

Having experimented (and failed) with the battle mode in Guitar Hero III, the developers have tried going down a slightly different route with the Powers mechanic in Warriors Of Rock. This time each character has a set ability which improves their performance, whether it's building up star power for every 10th consecutive note, or never being able to drop below a 2x score multiplier.

Each of the eight characters has their own little storyline and song list. Each character's track list is built around them, which means you'll find songs in similar genres grouped together here. One character specialises in punk rock, while another focuses on metal and another on classic rock, etc. Once each character has earned enough stars they will transform into a Warrior of Rock.

Transforming into a Warrior of Rock changes the physical appearance of the character, but it also improves their special power. So, instead of a 2x minimum multiplier, you'll receive a 4x minimum multiplier. Once the first four characters have transformed players will reach the first “boss,” Rush's “2112.” The twenty-two minute long song is split into seven levels and, once played to completion, the characters take possession of the Demigod of Rock's legendary guitar. Once all eight characters are transformed the final boss battle takes place and the Demigod is released.

After that point you can revisit all the songs in the game using the combined powers of all eight characters. It also unlocks another chapter containing a collection of songs which apparently rival the difficulty of Dragonforce's “Through The Fire And The Flames.” Scoring points isn't possible in story mode, instead there's a bar that shows your progress towards your next star. The number of stars available in each level has been raised from five to forty. The more powers you have unlocked, the more stars you'll be able to achieve.

You can also gain more stars by completing challenges. Every song in the game has thirteen challenges attached, which are generally designed to train you in the advanced skills, such as hammer ons and pull offs. Challenges are always “active” in all game modes, so you can gain those stars whether you know they exist or not.

All the modes and features added in World Tour are still there, including the music studio and drop-in drop-out quick play. Despite the focus on guitar music, you can use any instrument to play any section of the game, meaning four players can go through the story mode with a drum set each, if they want.

Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock is for those people who like a little tongue in cheek, over the top rock ridiculousness in their rhythm experience. The track list is more mainstream and popular than Rock Band 3's, from what we saw, but there's no real innovation here. It's a fun, safe bet, but those looking for something new and exciting will probably lean towards Rock Band 3, with its new keyboard peripheral and pro gameplay mode.

Definitley a RB guy. Was enjoying GH world tour but they came out with no new content once GH5 came out. Been a little lax in playing with the lame DLC for either lately. Saw the setlist of RB3 which because of the keyboard inclusion looked mediocre at best. I am a huge RUSH fan so GH Warriors might be right up my alley. Didn't actually like Brutal Legend, but do like the ideo of a story-line in the game. We'll see.

I know people are going crazy over the "pro mode" and keyboard of RB3, but how many songs can they pick on RB3 that have keyboards on it which wont make you fall asleep while your playing it? And with the easy set list of RB3 i think the pro mode is going to be no match to Guitar Hero's difficulty. But never the less RB3 will and always be a great game thats always fun to play, but not challenging.

I also prefer Rock Band over Guitar Hero. I'll be picking this one up mainly because of their inclusion of Rush. Add that to NIN, Blue Oyster Cult, and A Perfect Circle and their setlist easily beats RB3 in my opinion.

I'll still be picking up RB3 for pro mode drums, but their innovative keyboard and pro guitar are a bit too much of an investment in my eyes.

Gameplay seems meh to me. They may have a more 'rock' oriented setlist, but as stated, nothing really new here. And I like how Activision 'borrowed' most of the story mode look from Brutal Legend, a game Activision passed on.